Mouth agape, this huge humpback whale lunges from the water in the Chatham Strait, south-east Alaska. Humpback whales in Alaska feed mainly on herring, other small fish, and krill. These whales use a variety of methods to catch food including underwater exhalation of columns of bubbles that concentrate prey, feeding in formation, herding of prey, and lunge feeding

Humpback whale 'lobtailing' in Chatham Strait. The whale brings its tail down hard on the surface of the water - a sound that can be heard for a distance of several hundred metres underwater. Murrells’s whale pictures were given worldwide exposure through National Geographic and the BBC Wildlife magazine. He won an award at the BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition run by the Natural History Museum in 2002

Three humpback whales blast air and water through their blowholes in Tenakee Inlet. Murrell gets so close to the humpbacks that he has earned himself the nickname 'Whaleman'. 'All the situations have invariably involved me taking the kayak out in a storm,' he has said. 'There was a time in Alaska when I was severely hypothermic, standing knee-deep in water and really thinking I would never get out'